


Curses!

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: Whole New Vision [3]
Category: Primeval
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-16
Updated: 2009-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Melbourne and enjoying a peaceful family life, Nick’s reappearance comes as something of a shock to the Maitland/Stringer clan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curses!

            The phone rang. Joel groaned, and reached out for it, but only succeeded in knocking the lamp onto the floor. His wife, only slightly less awake, mumbled “Men!” scathingly, and squirmed over him to reach the offending telephone, keeping up a running commentary of _stupid bloody ex-special forces idiots what was all that sodding training for_ as she went. In the darkness, Joel smirked; they were a long way away from England, the Forest of Dean and the Devil’s Crowll, but Abby was still unimpressed by machismo. Or stupidity fit to knock lamps off bedside tables, if you put it Abby’s way.

 

            He put an experimental hand on her thigh, and she smacked it lightly, pressing the call button on the phone. “Hello? Hello. Connor! Do you know what bloody time it is here?... I was just getting some sleep. For God’s sake, between you, Joel, the twins and that sodding snow leopard at the zoo- what. Connor, could you repeat that please, this line is awful and I’m not sure- _What_! I don’t bloody _believe_ it!”

 

            Joel resurrected the bedside lamp and switched it on in order to look into his wife’s face. Her jaw was hanging open with shock.

 

            “Daddy?” came a feathery whisper from the door, and Joel glanced up to see the twins. Taking acknowledgement as invitation, they pattered forward and clambered onto the bed.

 

            “Holly, Lucy, you should be in bed,” Abby said sternly, but halfway off the bed and lying over her husband’s legs was not a position of authority, and Holly and Lucy completely ignored her.

 

            Joel ruffled Holly’s short sandy hair, and tugged one of her sister’s plaits. “Holls, Luce, you’ve had your marching orders. Off, now.”

 

            “Ngh,” Lucy mumbled, snuggling against her father’s side and sticking her thumb into her mouth, with the apparent intention of falling asleep. Joel groaned, and removed the thumb.

 

            “Lucy, you know what Dr. Sharma said about sucking your thumb. Now go. Both of you... Abby, are you all right?”

 

            “No!” Abby spluttered, fuming. “I don’t know! Clumsy, _idiot_ husbands, _stupid_ friends, children climbing _everywhere_ \- help me up, I’m falling off!”

 

            Joel and the twins obligingly hauled. Lucy and Holly retreated to the end of the bed, the better to go unnoticed.

 

            “What’s happened, anyway?” Joel demanded, as Abby smouldered dangerously in a slightly less precarious position.

 

            Abby sighed. “Connor’s... Ah. There’s been a blip on that gadget of his that shuts down anomalies, and Nick’s come back.”

 

            “Nick? _Cutter_?”

 

            Abby nodded resignedly, and, almost automatically, a litany of truly awful and remarkably inventive swearwords poured forth from Joel.

 

            There was a stunned silence, and then Connor, on the other end of the phone line, began to laugh helplessly. “Connor, shut up, it’s not funny,” Abby hissed, glaring daggers at Joel. “Girls, you aren’t to repeat any of those ever, do you understand me?”

 

            “Yes, Mummy,” Lucy said obediently, but Abby could hear Holly trying out ‘squirrel-swiving’ under her breath, and the glare only got worse.

 

            “Joel Stringer,” she muttered, “you are in _so much trouble_. Connor! We will discuss this later! At some time that is not three in the morning! Goodnight! Girls, bed. It’s not morning yet. Come and give me a kiss, then shoo, all right?”

 

            Holly and Lucy gave her a kiss each, and then slid off the bed and bounced away. Joel prepared himself for a serious interrogation.

 

            He didn’t get one; what he _did_ get was one small foot, heaving him out of bed, or at least seriously indicating that he didn’t belong in the bed. “Sofa,” Abby said shortly, and cocooned herself in the duvet. “If I sleep with you now, I’ll find myself eating you before the night’s over. Like a praying mantis. And I think I have a name for that warthog now... Joel the warthog. It has a nice ring... What are you doing still there?”

 

            “Going,” Joel said meekly, and headed for the sofa, hearing his girls giggling quietly and trying out a few of the words he’d just inadvertently taught them. He had a feeling that a night on the sofa wouldn’t be the last he’d hear of this.

 

***

 

 In England, Connor still hadn’t stopped laughing, and Nick was at something of a loss to know why. “What? Connor, what?” he protested, eyeing Connor in some perplexity.

 

“Nothing,” Connor gasped, “nothing,” and wept with laughter and joy and a sense of mischief he hadn’t felt for, oh God, years.

 

            He only hoped Lester’s reaction would be half as much fun.


End file.
